The Pre-Flight Briefing - Pilot Shop Blog

Has the grey sky put a damper on your love of flying? Acing your IFR rating not only makes you an even more skillful pilot, but it also grants you priceless freedom. Of course, there's one area that many IFR learners have trouble with—decoding all those confusing IFR clearances and readbacks!

No problem though, we're here to help!

As a Bahamas Flying Ambassador, I often hear from pilots that are interested in flying to The Islands Of The Bahamas, but are concerned about taking their first trip. The most common concerns are related to crossing into foreign airspace, dealing with customs and overwater flight. This article explains policies and procedures in order to insure your flying adventure will be a success.

"America’s favorite taildragger" is a high-wing, single-engine, tandem-seat aircraft that is value packed and perfect for short fields, bush flying, high altitudes, and landings at unimproved airstrips. The Husky is custom designed to fit the needs of the backcountry adventurer who wants sturdy, rugged, high-quality bush plane performance paired with a generous payload and the fuel capacity to support the journey.

You are planning a weekend getaway and want to fly a straight line to your destination but as you consult the sectional, you realize that there is a large patch of restricted airspace right in the middle of your proposed flight path. Going around it would add over an hour to your flight, but that is your only option, right?

There has been a subtle but important shift in the definition of slow flight since 2018. Prior to 2018, the FAA considered slow flight to be an airspeed at which any further increase in angle of attack, increase in load factor or a reduction in power would result in an immediate stall.

What do you remember about how to communicate with ATC if you lose radio comms or need to fly an aircraft without a radio? We all learned about light gun signals as student pilots, but we seldom quiz ourselves to check our retention.

Would you trust your life to your communication skills? It may not be something you think about every day. Still, each time you get into the cockpit and put that headset on, you are doing just that. Safety and communication are directly related. A communication failure can quickly become catastrophic.

During a night flight, you will want a reliable and consistent way to illuminate your instrument panel. While newer aircraft will come with pre lit instruments, there are plenty of ways you can upgrade your existing instrument lights.